APPLE'S NEXT MAJOR PRODUCT: A New TV Box Coming In April

AP Apple is planning to release a new set-top television box, and it is working with Time Warner Cable and other companies for video content, Bloomberg reports.

The new Apple TV box could be introduced in April, but Bloomberg also says it's aiming to have the device out in time for the holidays. The new Apple TV will have a faster processor and a new interface.

This is the second report in the past few weeks about a new Apple TV. Previously, Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac said Apple was planning a new TV box. Gurman said Apple was planning an App Store for the TV box, and it would also do gaming.

Apple has been rumored to attack the TV market for years. It has famously called its current hockey-puck-shaped Apple TV a "hobby." CEO Tim Cook has also said, "Apple doesn't do hobbies as a general rule. We believe in focus. And only working on a few things."

And, then, most famously, Steve Jobs said before he died, "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use ... It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud ... It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."

Since then, it's been fits and starts for Apple, with nothing to show for the effort.

Now, it looks like Apple is really ready to do something totally new.

The only weird thing about these reports is that Apple is only doing a set-top box. You'd think that Apple would want to make a full-blown television. But, there's talk that Apple is waiting for screen resolution on TVs to improve. This could just be laying the ground work for a television in a year or two.